The United States military has been sharing intelligence on Santa’s whereabouts with the public for nearly six decades. This year, the public “NORAD Tracks Santa” service spread through social networks and became a global phenomenon.

Every year on Christmas Eve, December 24, Santa Claus embarks on a journey to deliver presents to kids around the world during late evening and overnight hours. When Santa and his nine flying reindeer leave the North Pole, a blip on the North Warning radar system of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) officially marks the tracking.

NORAD, a joint military organization of Canada and the US, and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), began tracking Santa’s Christmas Eve flight in the ’50s. The tradition was born by accident, when Sears Roebuck & Co ran a 1955 magazine advert starring St. Nick and accompanied by the following text:

Hey, Kiddies! Call me direct…Call me on my private phone and I will talk to you personally any time day or night.

But the phone number provided was misprinted and off by a digit, accidentally putting children through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operations hotline in Colorado Springs, Colorado. That phone was supposed to ring only if the Russians were attacking. Colonel Harry Shoup, who was the Director of Operations at the time, recalled picking up a call and expecting the worst, only to be puzzled when a tiny voice asked, “Is this Santa Claus?”, CNN reported.

More such calls got through to the top secret phone line that day. Realizing those were just kids calling Santa, the Colonel decided best to have personnel answer those calls on the behalf of Santa Claus. Realizing a PR opportunity to advertise its technology, NORAD began “tracking” Santa’s journey on an annual basis. Over time, a local tradition has snowballed into the global phenomenon that it is today. It’s also an illustrious advertisement promoting the nation’s early missile warning system designed to “deter, detect, and defend.” A high amount of tech talk in NORAD’s official explanation of the Santa tracking system proves the point:

Detecting Santa all starts with the NORAD radar system called the North Warning System. This powerful radar system has 47 installations strung across the northern border of North America. NORAD makes a point of checking the radar closely for indications of Santa Claus leaving the North Pole on Christmas Eve.

The moment our radar tells us that Santa has lifted off, we use our second mode of detection, the same satellites that we use in providing warning of possible missile launches aimed at North America. These satellites are located in a geo-synchronous orbit (that’s a cool phrase meaning that the satellite is always fixed over the same spot on the Earth) at 22,300 miles above the Earth. The satellites have infrared sensors, meaning they can detect heat. When a rocket or missile is launched, a tremendous amount of heat is produced – enough for the satellites to detect. Rudolph’s nose gives off an infrared signature similar to a missile launch. The satellites can detect Rudolph’s bright red nose with practically no problem. With so many years of experience, NORAD has become good at tracking aircraft entering North America, detecting worldwide missile launches and tracking the progress of Santa, thanks to Rudolph.

The third detection system we use is the Santa Cam. We began using it in 1998 – the year we put our Santa Tracking program on the Internet. NORAD Santa Cams are ultra-cool high-tech high-speed digital cameras that are pre-positioned at many places around the world. NORAD only uses these cameras once a year – Christmas Eve. The cameras capture images of Santa and the Reindeer as they make their journey around the world. We immediately download the images on to our web site for people around the world to see. Santa Cams produce both video and still images.

The fourth detection system we use is the NORAD jet fighter. Canadian NORAD fighter pilots, flying the CF-18, take off out of Newfoundland to intercept and welcome Santa to North America. Then at numerous locations in Canada other CF-18 fighter pilots escort Santa. While in the United States, American NORAD fighter pilots in either the F-15 or F-16 get the thrill of flying with Santa and the famous Reindeer Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph. About a dozen NORAD fighters in Canada and the United States are equipped with Santa Cams.

Today, the famed military organization maintains the official NORAD Tracks Santa website where you can check up-to-the-minute information on Santa’s journey, including live updates in seven languages (English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Chinese), radar maps, interactive games, and streaming SantaCam footage documenting his global journey. This year, NORAD said, the site recorded nearly nine million unique visitors from more than 200 countries and territories around the world. The site had eight million unique users in 2008 who generated tens of millions of page views and more than ten million map views, up 45 percent from 2007.

But that’s not all – NORAD allocated volunteers and military personnel from Colorado Springs to answer more than 70,000 phone calls and 12,000 emails from children and young-at-hearts around the globe. NORAD also teamed up with companies like Verizon Business that provided a free hotline that kids can call to talk to volunteers, check Santa’s location, etc. This year, NORAD went social so kids were able to track Santa through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and TroopTube.tv. And in case you’ve been wondering, yes – there’s an app for that, too.

The Internet giant Google has been NORAD’s partner in Santa tracking since 2007. This year, Google played a big part in NORAD’s social efforts. The search firm relayed Santa’s location in Google Maps and Google Earth and displayed his journey directly on the NORAD Tracks Santa site using the Google Earth browser plugin. Smartphone users were able to track Santa via a mobile-optimized site at m.noradsanta.org or by searching for “Santa” on Google Maps for Mobile, Google said. Other corporate sponsors included Booz Allen Hamilton, Globelink – Foreign Language Center, Meshbox, GE, tw telecom, PCI Broadband, Naturally Santa Inc., First Choice Awards and Gifts, Concept3D, Analytical Graphics, Inc., Avaya, OnStar by GM, Santa’s Traveling Workshop, and General Dynamics.

Reader Comments

http://www.TheSantaClausFoundation.org Santa Claus

Actually, NORAD has never “hired” Santa Claus at all; and, there is no ‘e’ in Claus. Readers who are interested in learning what Santa Claus does all year long to advocate for millions of vulnerable children in dire straits can visit TheSantaClausFoundation dot org. Blessings to all, Santa

Christian Zibreg

Corrected the typo, thanks for the heads up…

MINI vanilli

the EPSON rich media takeover banner on this site is starting to really become annoying!!!